The Work of the Church

The following thoughts serve as an introduction to chapters 8, 9, and 10 of Batsell Barrett Baxter's book, The Family of God.  These chapters describe the work of the church.

Over the next four sessions of this class we will be talking about what the Lord's church is supposed to actually do on a day-to-day basis.  What are the tasks we have before us?  How do we know what they are?  What guidelines do we have for carrying out what God wants us to do?

If you have been keeping up with the book or these posts from the start, you know that we will be looking into God's word to find the answers to our questions about what the church should do.  The first line of a hymn says, "There is much to do, there's work on every hand."  The more we study, the more specific and purposeful our vision for the work of the church becomes.  I have seen that happen in church members and leaders that I can call to mind right now, and that gives me great encouragement.

The three areas we will cover are evangelism, edification, and benevolence.  All are excellent uses of our time and effort for the Lord.  Churches that thrive are covering all of these bases, not just one.  Every church has and is a ministry, and the ministry needs to be a balance of everything Christians should do.

We have recently discussed how members of the church are like parts of a body, and all are needed to make the body whole.  I think we will see that one beautiful way God blesses the church is with people who have different skills and talents, to balance out the ministry and broaden its reach into all these areas of service.

At the same time every Christian naturally is looking for something to do in grateful response to salvation, as we just recently discussed.  In that search, every Christian is accountable for a willing response to God in all areas of the ministry.

Church leaders should look at the balance of activity and see if the local congregation is functioning well.  If one aspect of the work of the church is lacking, it is easy to find out how to get back on track through individual and group study.  In some cases it might not be quite as easy to actually do what we learn about, but in the larger sense it is not a problem, because our motivation is pure.  Again adapting a hymn verse, "Our Shepherd is beside us, and nothing can we lack!"